Fall From Grace

Parmeshwar Devkota

As soon as the Supreme Court (SC) annulled Rabi Lamichhane’s position as the member of the House of Representatives on Friday evening, the latter resigned from the post of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs. The SC verdict has left his voters and well-wishers shocked. Nepali voters are very gullible. They are mesmerised by the gimmicks of leaders and media presenters.

If we look at Rabi’s past, he was not on the frontline of struggle for democracy in the streets. In his school and college days, the Nepali society saw many changes - good and bad. Had bad changes prevailed in the Nepali society, we would not have enjoyed the federal democracy today. But, Lamichhane, a prominent speaker and social mobiliser, seldom participated in the social and political uprisings. Instead, he went to the land of opportunities — the United States – to make his fortune. 

After having experienced American life and learnt American mantras, Lamichhane returned to Nepal. He relinquished the US citizenship but he did not follow due legal process to obtain Nepali citizenship. He started running a television programme as a host, and applied all the mantras he had learnt from America to woo innocent and development loving Nepali people. That made him immensely popular especially among migrant workers and lower-medium class citizens. 

His audiences saw an extraordinary talent in him to become a politician. They wanted that Lamichhane should be harsh towards the civil servants in such a way that immigration staff grills the migrant workers. After his fan praised him to the skies, he started to behave as if he is above the law. 

He not only undermined the legal provisions of the country but also the Nepali civil service system, the Election Commission and innocent people. Rabi’s habit of playing flippancy with the existing legal system reminds me a story from Fables of Aesop. It goes like this.

Once, a poor man fell very ill. Everyone thought that he would surely die. He prayed to the God that if he recovered, he would sacrifice hundreds of animals in His honour. The God blessed him and soon he recovered from the illness. But the poor man decided to cheat the God. He merely made one hundred models of animals from fallow and burned them on the altar. Then prayed, ’Oh God in heaven, receive my offerings to you.’

The God turned angry as he lied. So, the God appeared in the poor man’s dream and said, ‘My man, go to the seashore and this would lead to one thousand fish for you.  The ambitious man reached the seashore early in the morning but was captured by pirates. The pirates sold him as a slave in the market and received one thousand fish for him. 

Despite being a popular host and clever politician, Rabi fell from grace within a short period. As a young and energetic son of Nepal, he should apply for Nepali citizenship and correct his tendency of defying law.